THE horrific details of a Valentine’s Day missing person and murder case where a young mom’s torso was found hidden in her own garage have been retold by the sheriff who worked on the grisly crime.
Mom of two Tara Grant, 34, was first reported missing by her husband on February 14, 2007, before the case took several sickening turns, former sheriff Mark Hackel told The U.S. Sun.
That month, Tara’s high-flying corporate job had taken her to sunny Puerto Rico, where she commuted during the week before flying home to her family in a Michigan suburb at weekends.
Her children, Ian and Lindsay, were just four and six years-old respectively at the time while husband Stephen, then 37, was a stay-at-home dad who reportedly had political ambitions.
Tara flew back to the US just five days before her disappearance.
When Stephen walked into a police station to make a report on February 14, he told officers he had been searching for her for days and was increasingly worried.
“We thought it was odd from the start,” Hackel told The U.S. Sun, adding that Stephen appeared agitated and initially overly eager to cooperate. Officers were sent immediately to the family home.
In the following days, while Stephen sought the spotlight with media interviews, he started to resist full cooperation with investigators. Yet in a pre-social media era, those interviews became valuable, Hackel said.
Each time Stephen spoke publicly, detectives contacted reporters to gather as much detail as possible.
“I thought his attorney was going to tell him, quit talking to the media,” Hackel later said. “But he didn’t.”
The officer would maintain a close relationship with the local reporters covering a missing person case which had begun to shock a nation.
Hackel says the experience had taught him something important: people under pressure often reveal more than they intend.
“When somebody’s guilty, they’re going to do things, say things that are going to trip them up,” he said confidently.
After three weeks, investigators confirmed Tara had not returned to Puerto Rico and that none of her credit cards had been used.
Dropping clues
The first breakthrough same through a chance discovery when a woman walking in a local park found a blood-soaked bag wedged into a tree containing gloves, metal shavings, and blood that cops identified as Tara’s.
Stephen continued refusing certain police requests, including a polygraph test.
He also declined to provide access to the family computer and would not allow unrestricted entry into the home.
Meanwhile, he continued speaking to media outlets, including reporters from the Macomb Daily.
In one conversation, a journalist noted that Stephen had repeatedly mentioned Stony Creek Metropark, just miles from his home.
He described seeing someone riding a bike there and recalled a previous encounter with Hackel in the park years earlier.
“I didn’t recall that at all,” a bemused Hackel told The U.S. Sun.
After the interview, Hackel said detectives were alerted, and authorities organized a large public search of Stony Creek Metropark. Teams on foot, horseback, and four-wheelers were deployed, supported by helicopters.
During these preparations, Stephen’s attorney requested that he be allowed to observe the search but authorities declined.
Unbeknownst to investigators, Stephen went to the park that same night.
According to later evidence, he had previously buried Tara’s remains there.
Fearing discovery, he retrieved part of the remains, placed them in a bag, and moved them again — eventually transferring them to a storage bin in his garage after ensuring he had not been seen.
Torso discovered
However after the park search on March 2, Hackel and his team brought a warrant to the Grant home to continue the investigation.
Stephen chose to leave, saying he was walking the dog, when cops arrived.
Inside the garage, officers noticed a trash can had been moved. One deputy opened the lid and examined a bag inside that looked ununusual.
Inside was Tara’s clothed torso. From neck to thigh she was dressed in her underwear. Part of her jeans remained too.
Hackel said the breakthrough moment was surreal— a sudden freeze in the mind as officers processed what they had found.
“The hair on the back of your head stood up and you hear people saying that,” he recalled.
“But it’s actually the feeling that I had is that your brain had kind of a brain freeze. You’re like, wait a minute. What did—what did we just find? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Hackel said he had grown close to the family during the investigation and now faced the devastating task of informing Tara’s relatives and her two young children, Lindsay and Ian, that she had been found, but not alive.
Hospital bed confession
As the evidence against Tara’s increasingly anxious husband mounted, he fled. He borrowed a friend’s car, loaded it with alcohol, razor blades, and a fake gun, and drove north into the freezing night.
The next morning, authorities launched another search in a remote wooded area. Within an hour, additional remains were discovered.
The FBI joined the investigation and a full-scale manhunt was underway.
Stephen was located in Wilderness State Park two days later on March 4, a place he and Tara had once visited together. He was found beneath a tree in bitter cold conditions, suffering from severe hypothermia and frostbite.
He was taken to a hospital where he fully confessed to the crime. Once doctors determined he was medically stable, he was formally placed into custody.
Concerned about how Stephen would be presented in court after being a patient, and officials insisted he be dressed as a prisoner.
A jail uniform was brought to the hospital, and he was changed into it before being wheeled out in handcuffs.
“I didn’t want anybody to get the impression that this guy is a poor little patient after what we had all been through,” said Hackle who recalled the freezing, wintry conditions his officers had to work in made the search operation even more challenging.
Nine months after his arrest, the case went to trial and following three weeks of testimony, Stephen Grant was convicted of second-degree murder and mutilation of a corpse.
He was sentenced to 50 to 80 years in prison.
Disturbing details
Investigators later released details of Stephen’s chilling two-hour confession from his hospital bed.
He told detectives an argument on February began in the couple’s bedroom while Tara unpacked from her trip.
In the weeks before, Stephen had pursued a sexual relationship with the family’s 18-year-old German au pair, Verena, who helped care for their children.
He claims, however, that Tara’s work trips were the spark for the argument and not his affair.
Stephen said she slapped him during the dispute and that he struck her in return. He claimed she fell and hit her head and described becoming enraged and placing his hands around her neck, choking her to death as their kids slept.
He then admitted to wrapping a belt around her neck and moving her body down the stairs and described struggling to place her into his vehicle.
At one point, the belt around her neck snapped and her head hit the concrete floor before he put Tara’s body in the back of his SUV and covered her with plastic.
Two days later he brought the SUV to the tire shop where he worked and attempted to chop up Tara’s body with a tree saw which he vomited and drank alcohol to get through, Fox News reported.
After resorting to saw blade to cut up the rest of Tara’s corpse, Stephen wrapped the remains in plastic and placed them into a large storage bin, the charging document stated.
Early the following morning, he transported the bin to Stony Creek Metropark using a sled.
He told detectives the sled slid downhill unexpectedly, spilling its contents, forcing him to gather everything again before burying the remains in multiple locations.
Investigators later determined he had moved the remains several times in an effort to avoid detection. Ultimately, 11 of 14 remains were recovered.
The nanny, Verena, was investigated and cleared after she called cops on the discovery of Tara’s torso and said Stephen had confessed the killing to her on the phone that day.
Detectives concluded the husband had acted alone despite her admitting to an inappropriate relationship between them.
Family recovers
Six months after the trial, Stephen’s father died by suicide. Reports indicated he had been seeking visitation rights with his grandchildren. The children went on to live with Tara’s sister.
Each year, the family participates in Tara’s Walk, raising funds for domestic abuse programs in her memory.
Daughter Lindsay, who majored in psychology at college and son Ian, who studied in Wisconsin were brought up by Tara’s sister Alicia, attend the event and show such incredible bravery when confronting the nightmare of their past.
They have reportedly never had contact with their father who will undoubtedly die in prison.
Hackel served with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office from 1981 to 2010. Elected sheriff in 2000, he rose through every rank during his three decades with the department.
He is now County Executive, the latest stage of a varied and eventful career.
Yet he said nothing compares to that moment exactly 19 years ago when he first met Stephen Grant.
He knows some people initially believed the killer’s claims that Tara had left on her own accord.
But investigators remained focused on the evidence, he said.
Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/15940481/tara-grant-murder-stephen-update/
